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kippurbirdChapter twenty seven is another one of those non-chapters. Bobo and Fache discuss how Langdon could have known about the tracking device and that Sophie must be working with him. They decided to send ONE guard into the Grand Gallery to see what's happening. \~/ He's an armed guard, but still, he's only one guard. These two people have already thwarted an entire "army" of cops and they think that one guy is going to be able to corner them. Eh... but what do I know? Obviously the cops are stupid, because how else will the heroes look heroic? By perhaps outwitting someone who is actually perhaps worth out witting because they're intelligent? Personally, I'm just waiting for something to happen.
And finally we find out what those six words are. "So Dark the Con of Man". Which, to Langdon, proves that her grandfather was a part of the Priory. As this was their fundamental philosophy.
The previous statement is utter crock. Paganism was not exclusively matriarchal. Constantine didn't successfully convert the world to patriarchal Christianity by waging a campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred feminine and he didn't obliterate the goddess from modern religion forever either. The Priory also doesn't even believe in this (or exist...). This is just Brown pushing his agenda about how the church is evil and the sacred feminine is wonderful. (Which is, of course, the entire point of the book...) \~/, \~/, \~/, \~/, \~/, \~/, \~/
... I think I just emptied a bottle there. And that was just one sentence.
Putting that aside, Sophie believes that grandpa sent her there for some reason. Meanwhile, Langdon is busy thinking about the dark con of man, which I'm currently believing is those natural penis enlargement supplements that spam my inbox. Either that or the Send us money scams in Ethiopia. He goes into a monologue \~/ about the church reeducating the Pagans and the publishing of the The Witches' Hammer which "indoctrinated the world to "the dangers of freethinking women" and instructed the clergy on how to locate, torture and destroy them." the book was never sanctioned by the church however. \~/ Long boring bit about how the Church is evil \~/ for wiping out women from important roles.
"Today's world was living proof. Women, once celebrated as an essential half of spiritual enlightenment, had been banished from the temples of the world. There were no female Orthodox rabbis, Catholic priests, nor Islamic clerics." I shall like to pause here and comment on the "female Orthodox Rabbi" part of that sentence.
First of all, there is an Orthodox woman Rabbi. She works at my University and her name is Rabbi Mimi. She has an orthodox Smicha (which is what you need to have to be a rabbi). Second off, Rabbis are basically teachers. They aren't "holy". They're there to teach people the prayers, they were created sometime after the Second Temple was destroyed as a way to keep the Jewish people together in the light that they couldn't go to the Temple and offer up their sacrifices. Instead of going to the Temple, they substituted prayers for sacrifice, and this was long before Constantine. Third, women were never allowed to be priests or even allowed up into the Temple and this was long before Christianity so there was never anyway for them to be banished. Fourth, women are not obligated to pray. They don't have to say prayers on a set schedule, they are not bound by time. They have charge of the home and in it, the man has to do what they say. The men are obligated to pray and study Torah. These two tasks are completely equal and some say that the women wield more power for they are the ones in charge of the children's upbringing (how's that for Sacred Feminine?) and education.
I think that's four? \~/, \~/, \~/, \~/ and I'm not even going to touch on the other two religions, however, I do remember that one of Mohammed's wives were very high up in the religion after he died, \~/ and that women in the early church did have positions even if they couldn't become priests and look at Mary, Jesus' mother. \~/
Moving on. Talk about repression of sexual urges \~/ and that the days of the goddess were over. Curiously, he refers to God with a capital letter but never Goddess. One would think that if the Goddess is supposed to be equal or better than God, she would rate a capital letter in the text. Just a thought.
After all of this, Sophie lets Robert know that someone is coming! GASP. It's our Security Guard. He orders Langdon onto the ground while Sophie manages to hide in the dark. Now this is an actual legitimate place to stop a chapter. The Heroes are in danger. They've been caught. There doesn't appear for away for them to get out. How are they going to get out of this situation? Now there's real tension for you. Not.. the Ethopian Penis Enlargement Scheme.
Eighteen drinks... I think I'm gonna stop here.
And finally we find out what those six words are. "So Dark the Con of Man". Which, to Langdon, proves that her grandfather was a part of the Priory. As this was their fundamental philosophy.
The Priory believes that Constantine and his male successors successfully converted the world from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal Christianity by waging a campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred feminine, obliterating the goddess from modern religion forever.
The previous statement is utter crock. Paganism was not exclusively matriarchal. Constantine didn't successfully convert the world to patriarchal Christianity by waging a campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred feminine and he didn't obliterate the goddess from modern religion forever either. The Priory also doesn't even believe in this (or exist...). This is just Brown pushing his agenda about how the church is evil and the sacred feminine is wonderful. (Which is, of course, the entire point of the book...) \~/, \~/, \~/, \~/, \~/, \~/, \~/
... I think I just emptied a bottle there. And that was just one sentence.
Putting that aside, Sophie believes that grandpa sent her there for some reason. Meanwhile, Langdon is busy thinking about the dark con of man, which I'm currently believing is those natural penis enlargement supplements that spam my inbox. Either that or the Send us money scams in Ethiopia. He goes into a monologue \~/ about the church reeducating the Pagans and the publishing of the The Witches' Hammer which "indoctrinated the world to "the dangers of freethinking women" and instructed the clergy on how to locate, torture and destroy them." the book was never sanctioned by the church however. \~/ Long boring bit about how the Church is evil \~/ for wiping out women from important roles.
"Today's world was living proof. Women, once celebrated as an essential half of spiritual enlightenment, had been banished from the temples of the world. There were no female Orthodox rabbis, Catholic priests, nor Islamic clerics." I shall like to pause here and comment on the "female Orthodox Rabbi" part of that sentence.
First of all, there is an Orthodox woman Rabbi. She works at my University and her name is Rabbi Mimi. She has an orthodox Smicha (which is what you need to have to be a rabbi). Second off, Rabbis are basically teachers. They aren't "holy". They're there to teach people the prayers, they were created sometime after the Second Temple was destroyed as a way to keep the Jewish people together in the light that they couldn't go to the Temple and offer up their sacrifices. Instead of going to the Temple, they substituted prayers for sacrifice, and this was long before Constantine. Third, women were never allowed to be priests or even allowed up into the Temple and this was long before Christianity so there was never anyway for them to be banished. Fourth, women are not obligated to pray. They don't have to say prayers on a set schedule, they are not bound by time. They have charge of the home and in it, the man has to do what they say. The men are obligated to pray and study Torah. These two tasks are completely equal and some say that the women wield more power for they are the ones in charge of the children's upbringing (how's that for Sacred Feminine?) and education.
I think that's four? \~/, \~/, \~/, \~/ and I'm not even going to touch on the other two religions, however, I do remember that one of Mohammed's wives were very high up in the religion after he died, \~/ and that women in the early church did have positions even if they couldn't become priests and look at Mary, Jesus' mother. \~/
Moving on. Talk about repression of sexual urges \~/ and that the days of the goddess were over. Curiously, he refers to God with a capital letter but never Goddess. One would think that if the Goddess is supposed to be equal or better than God, she would rate a capital letter in the text. Just a thought.
After all of this, Sophie lets Robert know that someone is coming! GASP. It's our Security Guard. He orders Langdon onto the ground while Sophie manages to hide in the dark. Now this is an actual legitimate place to stop a chapter. The Heroes are in danger. They've been caught. There doesn't appear for away for them to get out. How are they going to get out of this situation? Now there's real tension for you. Not.. the Ethopian Penis Enlargement Scheme.
Eighteen drinks... I think I'm gonna stop here.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-23 08:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-23 11:57 am (UTC)Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 09:00 am (UTC)The Catholic Church wasn't responsible for most of the deaths of those who were put to death because of allegations of witchcraft. Actually, they were pretty much against witchcraft trials in general, because at that time, the doctrine was that witches and witchcraft didn't exist. In a lot of cases, the church sent out people to actually put and end to the almost endemic witchcraft paranoia that had gripped central Europe at that time.
If you look at the statistics, you'll notice how, in countries that were still largely catholic like Italy, Spain and Ireland and had a strong central government, there weren't many "witch burnings". On the other hand, the country that boasts the highest number of witch trials and death sentences was Germany, which at that time was a hodgepodge of small fiefdoms, each of which was either protestant or catholic, depending on which denomination the lord of the fiefdom followed.
Now, why is that? Easy. Most witches weren't sentenced by a church court, but rather by a (mostly impromptu) secular city court. Religion actually had nothing to do with it. Greed, paranoia, fear and poverty, on the other hand, had lots to do with it. Central Europe had just been through (and, in places, still was in the grips of) a terrible war that pitted Protestants against Catholics, and had left thousands dead. On top of that, there had been crop failures due to a miniature ice-age that had f*cked up the weather like whoa. Read, famines, and even more dead. Oh, and plagues, let's not forget those.
All in all, it was the perfect climate for mass hysteria, which is what the witchcraft trials were. Mass hysteria, not some omg evil plot by the church to wipe our wise (pagan) women. Which is probably the reason why there were a significant number of male witches, too.
...but mass hysteria wouldn't fit Mr. Brown's story about the evil Church and the wonderful sacred feminine, now, would it?
Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 10:14 am (UTC)Fluff bunnies and Dan Brown's history both make my brain hurt. :P
The Code has bunny ears
Date: 2007-09-23 10:54 am (UTC)Re: The Code has bunny ears
Date: 2007-09-23 05:24 pm (UTC)Re: The Code has bunny ears
Date: 2007-09-24 03:19 am (UTC)Re: The Code has bunny ears
Date: 2007-09-24 03:50 pm (UTC)Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 03:44 pm (UTC)Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-24 03:18 am (UTC)Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 05:23 pm (UTC)Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-24 03:14 am (UTC)Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 01:51 pm (UTC)Usually they go on about how Christianity is a horrible belief that enslaves people, etc etc. How people in the old days believed in Gentle Goddesses etc etc.
Which brings me to a question: If Christianity was so hostile to The Sacred Feminine, and so utterly awful, why, oh why did people convert?
I think that the idea that people could get ecstatic about Christianity, to such a degree that they'd sacrifice their life for it, is simply beyond them. To them Christians are, and must always be, The Man, and there can't be any spiritual appeal to that.
Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 02:02 pm (UTC)People in the old days believed in all sorts of things. But there was a distinctly feminine aspect to almost every religion of Europe that is decidedly missing now. I'm ambivalent on whether that's a good or a bad thing. I don't think Christianity enslaves people, I think people enslave people.
To be fair, I think a lot of people have trouble with the idea that anyone could sacrifice themselves for a religious belief. How many people really understand Muslim suicide bombers?
Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 02:27 pm (UTC)Mary Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, venerated by every single Catholic and Orthodox Christian. Claimed to have had an immaculate conception, that is to have been born without sin.
Pope John-Paul II was very devoted to Mary, and wrote a extensively about her an her role.
Mary Magdalen, who discovered the risen Christ, and was therefore referred to as "Equal to the Apostles" and "The Apostle to the Apostles." Venerated in art, in churches, in convents, and so forth.
You also assume that there was this great feminine aspect in pre-Christian religions. That is not necessarily so, certainly the Old Norse and Germanic religion had their blotgydjes, and their wise women. However the bulk of the priests were men, in part because the Chieftains also acted as priests. Though women had a great deal of freedom the society was run by men.
The Celtic religion, often described as having a strong Sacred Feminine aspect, was overseen by the druids, who were men. Certainly the Celts had warrior women, and gave women nearly equal rights. Nevertheless this was a society that praised strength of arms, cattle raids, taking heads, and so forth.
Among more civilized groups the Greek religion was certain very patriarchal, and though the Romans granted more rights to women the only real "feminine" aspect of their religion was Magna Mater, Bona Dea, and the Vestal Virgins. Once more it was men who ran things, who managed politics, and held all the most prestigious religious offices.
I wouldn't go as far as to call any of that a distinctly feminine aspect.
That said I do not want to get into a religious flame war here. I'm not even Catholic fer crying out loud!
Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 05:13 pm (UTC)Also, there were many powerful female goddesses within their religion. Foremost of those was Isis, sister/wife of Osiris (and therefore queen of the afterlife), mother of Horus the sun god, and her very names could be used as a healing spell. There was also Sekhmet, the lioness-headed goddess of vengence who drank the blood of her enemies; Bast(et), another benevolent fertility goddess; Mut and Neith, creation goddesses...the list could go on and on.
Of course, the ancient Egyptian were a little more women-friendly than the other major classical civilizations. A few of them snuck their way into becoming pharoahs, they could independently own land, etc, as noted by the Greeks, who just chalked it up to the Egyptians being weird (since they did not properly fear the girl cooties, like respectable Greek men of the day did.)
The Mesopotamians had a similar situation, with some equally powerful goddesses, the foremost of which was Inanna, goddess of fertility, battle, and royalty.
Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 05:55 pm (UTC)Lol, you win. I was just about to say that certainly not all of the world was matriarchal pre-Constantine. The Greeks and Romans, for example (unless you wanna count the Amazons, who we're not even really sure actually existed). Plus, numerous tribes in Africa remain matriarchal to this day. So much for Constantine ending matriarchy.
Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 01:52 pm (UTC)The religion of the victims may have had nothing to do with it (though I don't know that that's the case across the board), but the religion of the perpetrators, whether they were really doing it for religious regions, was certainly a factor. No one would have listened to a Jew or a Muslim calling for the burning of anyone.
In my opinion. :)
Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 02:06 pm (UTC)Witch Hunts were generally a protestant thing, and where Catholics did engage in Witch Hunting it was usually in areas where Catholicism and Protestantism clashed.
Viz the authors of the Malleus Mallificarium were German.
I would also say that the Renaissance and the technological developments had a share in this. One broke away from the scholastic rationalism of the medieval Church, the other allowed ideas to be propagated wide and far. The same printing press that allowed Martin Luther to distribute his writings, printed polemics against witches. Often those two were one and the same.
However to blame the Roman Catholic Church for all of this is simply wrong. Some Roman Catholics did conduct witchhunts, but the Church as a whole helped stop them.
Later on protestants tried to convince everyone that the Catholic Church did it. Not only that, but the witch hunts obviously had to be greater in the old days, when the Catholic Church had more power.
You can blame the RCC for a lot of things, and they did some fairly nasty things in this period. However witch hunts wasn't really one of them.
Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 02:28 pm (UTC)German or not, they were Dominican monks who were members of the Inquisition. Are you saying that they didn't answer to the Church because they lived in Germany?
I agree, re: the Renaissance and Reformation. At no point did I blame the Catholic Church for all witch hunts. Maybe my response to the OP was too vague, but I believe I referred only to the Inquisition which was a Catholic undertaking. I was mostly trying to make the point that saying religion had nothing to do with it - just like saying the Church is responsible for all of it - would be "simply wrong."
At no point did I blame the Church. I just said that to say they weren't involved at all is a broad overstatement.
Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-24 04:02 pm (UTC)German or not, they were Dominican monks who were members of the Inquisition. Are you saying that they didn't answer to the Church because they lived in Germany?
Um, well, actually... sort of yes. Heinrich Kramer, the main author of the MM, was a sort of 15th century Jerry Falwell - read, he was a nutjob whom even his own Church thought of as just that, a nutjob. After he and his co-author Jakob Sprenger (who later distanced himself from the MM) had written their little book of horrors, they presented it to the University of Cologne’s Faculty of Theology (which, at that time, was a sort of "outsourced Vatican" for Germany)who condemed it for being both unethical and illegal. In 1490, the Vatican banned the book, and the Inquisition condemned Kramer.
But yeah, I should've written "religion had little to do with it".
no subject
Date: 2007-09-23 04:22 pm (UTC)I'll have to pick up my Islam books again, but yeah.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-23 04:56 pm (UTC)But I do have to back up the fact that the Church wasn't the responsible for a majority of witch huntings. That was mostly a protestant thing, I think. As far as I know, Rome didn't sanction witch hunts. Heretic hunts, oh yes, but not witches.
Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 05:43 pm (UTC)That would back up a lot of what I've been hearing about the Puritans (and other certain protestant groups) in New England. If I'm not mistaken, North America was essentially a dumping ground for heretics and other people the Old World didn't want to deal with. *shrugs*
Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 05:51 pm (UTC)- competition for a husband (just get some hot guy's wife burned, and he's single again!)
- wanting someone else's land (again-- burn the proper owner, the land is up for grabs!)
- boredom (seriously)
- sexual repression (if you had to act like a Puritan all the time, wouldn't you want to burn some folks?)
- even ergotism, from ergot which is a mold that grows on grain and causes hallucinations, etc. has been put forth as a cause
There must have been at least a few burnings that were religiously motivated, but for the most part I think religion was an excuse of witch burnings, not a cause.
Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 07:15 pm (UTC)Er, sorry about the tangent; it's one of my favourite subjects. *is geeky*
Re: Historical truth about the so-called burning times
Date: 2007-09-23 07:25 pm (UTC)The Crucible is one of my favorite plays/movies. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 02:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 03:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 05:18 pm (UTC)i come from metaquotes
Date: 2007-09-24 01:33 pm (UTC)i salute u @_@
Re: i come from metaquotes
Date: 2007-09-24 05:18 pm (UTC)Personally reading the book kills brains. The comments are actually enjoyable. ^_^
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 01:58 pm (UTC)This whole thing is awesome beyond words. May I friend you?
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 05:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 05:57 pm (UTC)